Health Technology Wales celebrates its first year anniversary today

Today Health Technology Wales (HTW), a national organisation that produces authoritative guidance on high impact health technologies, celebrates its one year anniversary. HTW’s work focuses on the identification, appraisal and adoption of non-medicine health technologies, such as medical devices, surgical procedures and care pathways. HTW guidance promotes the use of the most beneficial health technologies, improving the quality of health and social care for people in Wales.

HTW has thrived in this first year, growing from a modest staff of three to a multidisciplinary team of fifteen and publishing evidence-informed guidance on four health technologies.

HTW was officially launched by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services, Vaughan Gething on 27 November 2017. Since then, HTW has worked with partners across Wales and internationally to develop a collaborative network who are engaged in HTW’s work.

One year on, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services, Vaughan Gething said:

“I welcome the progress made by Health Technology Wales in its first year. They are delivering high quality, evidence-informed advice to our health boards on a range of non-medicine technologies. This is important work that will ensure our health service in Wales is at the forefront of modern technology.”

Dr Peter Groves, Chair of Health Technology Wales said:

“I am very pleased with the progress that has been made during this first year in establishing Health Technology Wales as an organisation that is able to use evidence to guide the delivery of the best innovative medical technologies to patients in NHS Wales.  We are working with partners across the healthcare sector to ensure that our combined expertise is applied to promoting the adoption of technologies that have the potential to make a real difference to people’s lives.  We are excited about the opportunities in the year ahead.”

Reflecting on the first year, Dr Susan Myles, HTW Director said:

“There has been an enthusiastic response and high demand for HTW services in our first year. A broad range of stakeholders have referred technologies and assisted in the development of evidence-informed guidance to support technology adoption decisions that aim to maximise health benefits and support best value for people in Wales.”

Ends.

Notes to editors

• Non-medicine health technologies includes any health technology that isn’t a medicine, such as medical devices, surgical procedures, psychological therapies, telemonitoring and rehabilitation.
• HTW is funded by Welsh Government and hosted by NHS Wales (Velindre University NHS Trust), but is independent of both.

For Press enquiries, please contact: 
Lauren Elston, Health Services Researcher on 029 2046 8948 or lauren.elston@wales.nhs.uk